Proverbs: 27:9,11

In a previous blog I mentioned I did not believe God always wanted good things in my life. But I still believed in Him and that He was in control and was my refuge.

I want to expand on that statement in this blog.

Throughout my life I have read and listened to many marketing speeches about the benefits of accepting Jesus as your saviour. There is always the statement that once you accept Jesus your life will be wonderful. Many people have taken that to mean they will be prosperous. Certainly there is a long tradition in Christian churches, especially protestant ones, that wealth is a sign of God’s favour.

This is so misleading. It is a major cause of people walking away from God. Because their lives were not wonderful as a result of accepting Jesus.

God does not promise following Jesus will give us a good life. You only have to look at the lives of the apostles in the New Testament, and read the stories of the early Christians who were martyred for their faith. What changes when we accept Jesus as our Saviour is how we relate to the world around us. 

I want to tell you a story about faith, hardship and Joy. I have changed details so that the person I am talking about is not identifiable.

I have a friend. We will give her the name Rachel.

Rachel is a very hard working woman who has had a difficult life. She has struggled with illness and disability. She worked hard to raise her children, despite her ex trying, and in the case of one child succeeding, to turn her children against her. She has worked hard and paid her debts. Life has never been easy for her. 

She now suffers from chronic illness and had to reduce her working hours, then stop working completely. The unemployment benefits she receives do not cover rent, so she is homeless. 

Homelessness is a scary place to be. She has lost more. Initially she was living in her car, but that is now gone and she sleeps rough on the ground.

Her family live far away and she is very much alone.

She has her pride. She tries to pay her way with everything. She is trying to pay off debts rather than declare bankruptcy.

The hopelessness of her situation has caused her to start to get involved with drugs and alcohol to help her get through each day.

She couldn’t be much lower than she is now.

But Joy radiates from her.

One day, she was walking to visit a friend and terrible fatigue overcame her. She sat down on a park bench. She enjoyed a brief conversation with a woman walking her dog. The woman left and Rachel remained there until she felt rested enough to get up. Just as she got up, the woman returned in her car with water for her to drink. The woman shared with her that she was a recovering alcoholic and attending AA meetings. She talked about the step in the 12 step program where she gave her addiction over to a higher power, Jesus. As the woman talked Rachel realised the goddess she always attributed everything to was the same person the woman was talking about. Except this goddess was Jesus. In the past she had tried to hand things over to the goddess without success. This time she handed her addictions over to Jesus. And He took them. 

Within twenty four hours of the conversation Rachel was feeling dramatically better. And she felt on top of the world. 

I recognise her joy. It is the same top of the world Joy I felt when I first accepted Jesus as my saviour.

This is the benefit of accepting Jesus. It is not wealth and a comfortable life. Rachel is still homeless and in a desperate situation. But she is full of Joy and feels on top of the world. And she no longer feels alone and forgotten.

Verse 9 in this Psalm talks about a friends’ counsel bringing Joy. What better joy to bring than to bring someone to faith in Jesus!

Verse 11 speaks of being wise and making the hearts of those who love us joyous. Rachel doesn’t have parents alive anymore, but she has people who care about her and we feel Joy at her wisdom in handing her addiction over to Jesus for Him to heal.
It is a source of great joy to see Rachel’s joy at her new found walk with Jesus.

God does not always give us fantastic lives. Sometimes, like Rachel, we walk in hardship. Things will probably never get better for Rachel. But to look at her, you would think she had found the greatest riches. Because she has found Jesus.

So let us be realistic about life. We will not always have an easy life. Things will go disastrously wrong. We may never know anything but poverty and hardship. But we can know the Joy of walking with our Saviour Jesus.